If you can't find any, I would be happy to link stories of people rightfully defending their homes.

I don't deny that this is the case. Many burglars come into homes who have no qualms about killing its inhabitants. I feel that if the occupants feel like their well being is in danger then they have the right to defend themselves.

But these were two junkies who wanted to steal some stuff to support their habits (most likely). Unless the homeowner really thought that they were about to release some SBDs while their backs were to him, he was in no danger, and he knew it. He wanted to punish those two guys, and he did.

Fortunately, the law recognizes that it's not up to the individual citizen to be judge, jury, and executioner. It allows for private citizens to prevent crimes and (I assume this is the case in the UK as well as in the US) perform citizens' arrests. But, again, the crime had already been prevented.

Honestly, and this is totally tangential, it looks to me like there would be better ways to defend that house than lying in wait with a gun. In the picture I saw, there were many windows broken in. I somehow doubt that those two guys broken them all. It looked to be in a state of general disrepair. Now, if the homeowner was poor and couldn't afford to fix it, then that's one thing, but the articles said that it was one of at least two occupances he owned and that burglars had previously stolen hundreds of pounds worth of furniture, so I find it unlikely that he's poor. Installing glass may well prevent the burglaries. And a cheap alarm system is probably not out of his range. That's not to say that this sort of thing should be required, but he seems to have the wherewithal to do this, and the cost of that ought to be less than the cost of a human life, as wretched as it might be. It should definitely be less than living in jail for years.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that he was lying in wait for someone to show up so he could shoot them.